Virgin Atlantic Introduces Accessible Inflight Entertainment for Visually Impaired Passengers

On 1 December 2017, we introduced a specially developed inflight entertainment system for passengers with visual impairments, making it available across our fleet. The new service was designed to address difficulties that customers with sight loss could encounter when navigating conventional seatback entertainment screens. We worked with British technology company Bluebox Aviation Systems and the charity Guide Dogs to develop the portable, iPad-based system. People with different levels of sight loss, including partial sight and blindness, helped shape the design and tested the technology during its development. Their feedback informed features such as larger text, high-contrast displays, simplified menus, consistent controls and audio guidance. The system also offered audio-described entertainment content, subtitles and support for multiple languages. By providing an interface that passengers with visual impairments could navigate more independently, we made a wider selection of onboard entertainment accessible to customers who had previously faced barriers using standard screens. At launch, Virgin Atlantic was reported to be the first airline to introduce a dedicated inflight entertainment system of this kind for visually impaired passengers. The project showed the value of involving people with lived experience of disability in the design and testing of onboard services.